Thursday, July 10, 2008

Dutch crime writer Janwillem van de Wetering, 77, died on July 4, 2008,following a struggle with cancer. Best-known for his Amsterdam Cops series,Soho Press will be reissuing all 14 of van de Wetering's Soho Crime novelsin paperback, beginning this fall.

Janwillem van de Wetering is probably better known to Zen fans as the author of The Empty Mirror, A Glimpse of Nothingness and After Zen,three of the finest accounts of the Zen life I've ever read. Van de Wetering was also an early champion of my work and was helpful in getting Hardcore Zen and Sit Down And Shut Up into print. He was the only well known author to submit a blurb for my first book. We corresponded some when that was going on, but I'd lost touch with him a couple years ago. He told me, though, that reading the galleys of Hardcore Zen got him back into Zen practice after a lay off of several years. His disillusion with Zen is devastatingly well documented in his book After Zen.

I'd always hoped to meet him some day. He lived in Maine, last I heard, and said I could stop by his place anytime I liked and stay as long as I pleased. Too bad I never got the chance. I want to try reading some of his crime novels. He was a terrific writer and highly recommended.

BY THE WAY: There will be a Hill Street Center Parking Lot Sale in the HSC parking lot (where else?) on Saturday July 12th starting at 8:30 AM. You won't be able to park there on Saturday. So be aware.

Anyone who wishes to volunteer to help out or who wants to donate is welcome. I shoulda mentioned this earlier. But donations will be taken all the way till the sale is underway on Sat. morning. I've seen some of the stuff being donated & it is of higher quality & greater interest than your usual yard sale fare.

You're welcome to show up earlier to shop. Just be aware I'm not opening the center doors any earlier than usual (around 9:30). Gotta take my shower and eat my cereal and all that, you know.

ALSO BY THE WAY: It looks like Tassajara has survived the fire mostly in tact. It finally entered the valley and burned up pretty much everything it could down there. Tassajara lost 3 or 4 smaller and non-crucial buildings around the perimeter (one cabin, the compost shed, one of the bathrooms...). The Zendo, dining hall, kitchen, guest and student cabins and stuff like that survived. Looks like the fire is now out of fuel so it's unlikely any more buildings will burn. The road is still impassable. More info is at Sitting With Fire.

64 comments:

Sad to hear this. He was a great writer. I read Empty Mirror and Glimpse many years ago. Afterzen is a sad tale of utter disillusionment with zen. Janwillem seemed to have a some distorted ideas about zen though. I get the feeling he saw the purpose of zen as literal detachment from the world and indifference to everything...very nihilistic too. Probably a result of the Beat Zen attitudes common when he first started training. I'd hoped he would eventually discover that zen has nothing to do with withdrawing or not caring.

Brad, from your correspondence with him, did you get an idea whether he'd changed any of his notions about zen or did he still think it was about reaching some state where 'nothing matters'?

Late in life I found out I had 3 brother's I never new of, and only 1 still alive. I talked to him a couple times on the phone. He was so angry he scared me. I didn't like talking to him. He drank himself to death a few years ago. I still regret not talking to him more.

It must be that thousands of people died today, "before their time", if I had met any of them, I'm sure I would regret their death and wish I had known them better.

The other day on a nature show I learned of a bat guano pile 100 feet high in a cave. Every cubic foot had hundreds of beetles in it 'designed' just for that guano. In that pile there must be thousands of beetles dying and arising every hour.

What is all this coming and going?

I'm just about at, or well past, the possible halfway mark of my life. I don't want to go.

I read a lot of Van de Wetering when I was a child (yeah, about 8 or 9). My mum was reading those books and didn't keep me from reading them. I was shocked by the graphic value indeed, but I think it was also very important for my development.

I never read his Zen book, just browsed through it and thought that it is probably very good.

Janwillem van de Wetering's 'The empty mirror'was THE book that got me into Zen practice after I picked up a copy in a secondhand bookstore. I love that book,second only to 'Hardcore Zen'. A sad day, thankyou Mr van de Wetering fot all your help - even though you never knew it..........

Ah, that's sad news.I read Empty Mirror back whilst living in Japan and found it to be very insighful, funny, heartwarming, and intelligent. I had a great time reading and re-reading it.Hope he died peacefully.

I've heard of Janwillem van de Wetering but never had a chance to read his works. After I clear off my current pile of books, I may try to squeeze some of his stuff in.

In regards to z0tl's post: this is an example of people who seem to show no desire in attacking the concepts that Brad talks about, but rather the purpose of which is to simply attack Brad just for the sake of doing so (case in point).

Such a shame because up until a few months ago there did use to exist some very interesting posts on this blog.

Couldn't agree more. Afterzen was one of the most fantastic books I ever read. Crime books have the same true bleak arresting style as the Zen books. Too bad you never got to meet him but at least you corresponded, but hey, you never know what you got till its gone. :(

Thanks for letting me know about this, since I can't stand to read the news anymore I would have missed it.

So z0tl is sort of like a Brad stalker? Jumps on everything he says. Like totally obsessed. Gotta get the first comment in etc. like he monitors this site all day and night.

Thinks its his responsibility to help all of us think for ourselves by thinking like him. Why does z0tl think we would listen to him or Brad? Both are kind of arrogant in writing. Don't know either personally nor do I care if I ever do.

But z0tl has never said anything here that I have personally found useful either in my practice or in my life. He rambles like a crack head. Unlike many of the other commenters, either for or against what Brad says.

Am a commenter here also sometimes but going the anonymous route as I don't need this kind of crap on my blog.

can you possibly please i beg you give a dharma talk teisho whatever you guys do and for the love of all gawds and daemons of N directions tell all your followers to try every now and again to speak for themselves, rather than try acting all lawyery (defend/accuse/expound) for you?

tell them all that you are mature enough to at least fend for yourselves [if really you must do that] in the stormy illuminated waters of your murky selves.

next, it would be nice if you addressed at least 1 or 2 of the serious questions/concerns that are pointed out to you under the apparent disguise of 'ad hominem' troll-pa rin-poke z0tl.

how could there possibly exist such a thing as 'ad hominem' against a zen master? daft!

in 'shoes outside the door' suzuki sensei (who only went roshi because the westerners needed the fancy title in order to ooo and aaa over their teacher), prior to shipping baker-san to japan for training, says: "i only know about 6 people in this world who TRULY KNOW zen."

i'm pretty sure he wasn't pointing to you/nishijima and please chastise me further if i mangled you two into one transmitted ball of mud, because i ain't throwing it atcha, str8 to dogen it should go if really you guys trace yourselves into that lineage.

i am so fucking confused. the rinzai ones go around telling folk transmission has no meaning in soto anyway, because you guys have all had insight into your original milk before you suckled at your momma's teat, so what gives?

nevertheless there is some anony trawllin' in here that penetrates like the arrow, painfully naked truth, with no room left for doubt.

which is why i am here for, the commenting, not the expounding of your crooked cucumber.

1. if a blog/anonymous text can bring you down to tears, how's it going IRL for you?

2. if you don't give a shit about either brad or z0tl IRL, why do you tangle with either of them AT ALL?

3. when you get all up in arms about a bunch of text, try remembering to take a long, EXTENDED outbreath, with your awareness into your HARA and FEEL exactly what this amazing anger translates into your body as?

for some mystical reason, the western mind believes that 6th ability, TO THINK, which is a function of your brain, is so much more magical than the other 5 senses.

news to you, when this text pisses you off, that is no different than your tongue tasting some vinegar.

this is why if you can make your ass (by that i mean Mind) perceive THE HEARING, not the stupid sound you think you hear, you're done.

any one of the 6 senses you can reverse your Mind on and get to the source of who is it that hears, tastes, etc...

YOU ARE DONE.

then you can come to z0tl and say, turn me the fuck over, see if i give a shit.

however, because you've never reverted anything in your fucking life, except churn your thoughts from left to right, down and up, and round about again, you get all worried about crack heads polluting your valuable blog.

anyway, maybe you're a math guy. your hara is the center of your being. now collapse your being into it (USING THE FELT SENSES, not your THINKING mind) and see if you can once look at your inside and realize that in fact that is the outside.

then you can work on obliterating the inside/outside altogether and then you'll laugh hysterically for 1/2 day guaranteed.

after that, maybe you get to sit sesshins without feeling like they're a DRAG, like braddy-chan over here.

when you can truly feel the pain without splintering the mirror, compassion naturally follows. why would I want to add once ounce of difficulty to the other's confusion? until then, best to bear the charge within.

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,As I foretold you, were all spirits andAre vanished into air, into thin air;And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,The solemn temples, the great globe itself,Yea, all which it inherit shall dissolve,And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuffAs dreams are made on, and our little lifeIs rounded with a sleep. The Tempest

Blogger z0tl said..."oh yeh, my agenda is to help you stop putting your teacher on a pedestal."

J. Duncan M. Derrett wrote: "For about 150 years scholars of unusual temerity have asserted that themes found in Buddhist texts, many of them celebrated in surviving Buddhist sculpture, can be found in the New Testament in more or less recognizable forms."

The link below is a podcast with Dzogsar Khyentse Rinpoche (Director of The Cup and Travelers & Magicians) giving a talk about Zen Buddhism while in Japan. After speaking and sitting with a Zen Monk and doing some reading on Zen, Dzongsar talks about his admiration for "Sitting" and advocating people to practice the "method of no method."

5. shikantaza (which i believe brad tries to practice) is a more advanced practice than sussok'kan, who cares where the apostrhophe goes, the japanese grammar nazi.

6. anyone can tell by taking one look at him and even by listening to his w0rds that his personality is rinzai (because he is an asshole), yet his level of practice is even below the shit i'm doing with a practice that still uses breath for a crutch.

7. i know it looks out there like i'm this patronizing SOB who's out to point out every1 else is stupid.

8. if you can get the fuck over your mountainous ego and actually try to understand what i say, you'll see all i try to do is help and while at it find folks i can learn from, IRL of course. fucking around on this blog interests me as much as master santa claus.

That tao meditation sounds irrestible. Especially if you are representative of your practice. We need more excellent ambassadors; like that mike cross guy who is a excellent example for the effects of the alexander technique.

z0tl: I cannot really work out if you are a troll or just some angry kid who knows very little.

I own Brunce Frantzis' "Opening the Energy Gates of your body" and also some of his internal MA books.

I've made a lot of use of the fire meditations - small/large microcosm orbit and "skin breathing" but was actually mainly taught Nei Gung (Water Method) exercises/meditation as part of my Kung Fu and Tai Chi training. [Fire and Water fit nicely together and help balance each other].

I also once got into trouble [Kundalini] doing Small Microcosm and needed my teacher to bail me out - using techniques to manage it that were not in any book.

You can learn some of these things from books but it's not a bright idea. Some things are best learnt from a teacher.

Amongst all of this I considered Zazen something that was of use in addition to these exercises. Often they only appear to be different... If you are in the same town as Brad then go sit in on one of his sessions. Meet the guy not the blog before you condemn him too much. [I've never met him].

If you feel the need to prove that your method is 'better' than another or that your skills are more 'advanced' than another's then there must be something lacking in you. Certainly it would suggest that an ego is nice and active.

My teacher (a Shaolin Monk) repeatedly emphasised the value of Zazen as an essential part of what he taught even though he taught many other things and he emphasised it is a Chi-building meditation. It relaxes and opens the internal Chi pathways.

If you want to really read about what you claim to know then the classic book is "Muscle/Tendon Changing and Marrow/Brainwashing Chi Kung - The secret of youth" y Dr Yang Jwing-Ming. It's based on some of the original texts and I don't think is in print anymore but it is available for a price in various places.

I picked up Brad on a specific point - when he started to condemn another teacher for teaching something he thought was invalid rather than not recognised.

You are ranting at Brad and doing just what he did - condemning Zazen without actually understanding it and also without actually understanding Nei Gung either. Zazen fits into Nei Gung as part of the practice.

The simple fact is that different people find different methods beneficial at different times and that does not mean that one method is better than another. At times I've spent many hours doing Tai Chi 24, at other times I've done lots of Zazen or "Stand like a Tree" or other Tai Chi exercises.

There was a time when I would regularly do small microcosm orbit before going dancing since I've found Nei Gung to be very useful during dancing and in fact do often practice Nei Gung techniques as part of dancing - it makes everything go noticably smoother and seems to stop women trying to lead.

I'm conscious that it is very easy to venerate or despise methods and teachings when you have very little experience of them. I'm also conscious that some of the methods I've found must useful are also the very ones that I thought were the most moronic/ridiculous. Many a conversation with my Kung Fu teacher was preceded by me giving him an "are you completely fucking mad" paddington-bear look. But I did the exercises and found them to be useful.

If I'd ignored all the stuff that I wanted to condemn before trying it I wouldn't be where I am today.

At the moment I'm reading some of Ken Wilber's stuff on Integral Vision. I think I disagree with him on some points but want to read his actual texts and visions before I go and make up my mind. There's always a chance I miht learn something.

you 1 ksana (small kalpa) ago might as well have been z0tl #878123741^871143 + N to the power of ignorance.

this is the source of all misunderstandings, methinks, because w'all think that getting pissed off at a "someone" who has wronged us 5.8 years ago isn't the same kind of ineptitude as believing what we ourselves said 5.8 seconds ago had in fact any kind of value at all.

sit tight, master kung fu panda.

& try to observe.

now, here we go, attention in your belly, ouuuuuuuut we go with that outbreath.

and still some more when i tell you there is no blog and no z0tl. there is but this one comment that you happen to read.

finish your outbreath without losing your focus which, as all good kids know, should be in the center of your being, teh hara.

now then, step back a few posts and read everything teh z0tl has ever said and if you can find one place where he has said zazen is bad practice, you can give yourself a brownie.

are you still on the inbreath now?

and if so, are you expanding the belly like it's a cylinder, ie pressing against the back/mingmen with an equal force you press on the 1/2 way between belly button and groin skin/still not hara, but that axis that goes through the tan'tien/hara?

if you say you own the energy gates and are familiar with water dissolving, why must i do this with your advanced kung fu ass?

now when that ring of chi expands beautifully (because w'all know right we don't fucking breathe air in, we move teh chi in and out) in and out sourcing from your tan'tien/hara, where may i ask on the fucksface planet of this 3rd rock is teh assholy z0tl?

other than in the misty fog of memory, along with your remaining trailing thoughts which along with that chirping bird and that sent of your own fart you passed 5 minutes ago, are all fukken not there at all whatsoever, never were (except ideas of them you manufactured) and so it goes?

settle down, mikey, i don't sit in order to wake up (which is a hindrance to your practice anyway), i sit because i've got nuttin else to do here.

thusly, i lied to you, i still zazen my ass, usually 2 hours a day in the mornings 6am-8am, but i also wu style tai chi / meditate my ass, usually in the pool (like i have told you directly before), during the golden hour, most days, 5:30pm-6:30pm.

I'm sorry to hear that Janwillem van de Wetering has died. And it isn't nice to lose touch with someone and then to find out that they are dying/have died. It happened to me with a friend of mine quite recently. I try to avoid losing touch with people now.

Jan-Willem went through a lot of hell in early life. He survived the Nazi occupation of Holland, and during that time, Jewish schoolmates of his were taken away and killed.

After the occupation, when Jan Willem was still in high school, one of the faculty committed suicide.

And, when Jan Willem decided to investigate Zen, this was around 1958. The only guidebook he had was DT Suzuki, who was Rinzai and a non monastic practitioner. And the monastery where Jan Willem stayed for a year in Japan was Daitoku-Ji, also a Rinzai monastery.

All he was told about was zazen and koans, but all through his books, there appears little about how the Bodhisattva ethical precepts are also essential to Zen.

Its interesting. Ever notice that even today, we see all sorts of adverts for learning meditation, but never see one for 'An Exciting Evening on Buddhist Ethics'?

Never forget that Jan Willem was pretty much in the pioneer cohort. Imagine trying to learn Zen practice, in Japan, in 1958.

last anon:Maybe it wasn't meant like that, but it sounds like you are laying off any of Janwillem's deficiencies in understanding of zen to the fact that he practiced Rinzai instead of Soto. He maintained high regard for his old teacher in japan, just didn't think much of the american 'master'.

Blaming Rinzai zen for his or his teacher's faults is no different than blaming Soto zen for Baker roshi's trainwreck back in the 80's. Though I'm in substantial agreement with all your other points, including DT Suzuki being part of the problem. His take on zen seemed pretty divorced from ethics and buddhism too. He talked about how there could be zen-anarchism, zen-communism, zen-nazism, etc.